


Merlin's Bane

by platonic_boner



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Angst, Immortality, M for Murder, M/M, Reincarnation, Serial Killer Merlin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-06 05:31:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6740434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/platonic_boner/pseuds/platonic_boner
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin is hardly surprised when he discovers how to live forever. He's known it all along, after all: a life for a life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Merlin's Bane

Merlin is hardly surprised when he discovers how to live forever. He’s spent years searching for some secret of immortality after Arthur’s death, all in an effort to guarantee that he would be there to serve Arthur whenever the king returned. But he’s known it all along. 

A life for a life.

So Merlin kills, and is sustained with the remaining years his victims had left.

The first man he kills for his rituals is someone who was threatening his life. The man had a knife; it was self-defense. (Perhaps he could have just knocked the man out and walked away; but he might have hurt someone else.) As time goes on, though, Merlin becomes less and less squeamish about his victims. Children generally have the most years left to give him, after all.

So Merlin kills, and waits for Arthur to return.

And as time goes on, as Merlin’s real body ages, he needs more and more life to sustain him. His kills become more frequent, until he is killing someone nearly every day. It’s over a thousand years past Arthur’s death, and news travels fast nowadays. The televisions all talk about this serial killer in the UK who targets schoolchildren. The police cannot catch him, there are no witnesses, it is as if he is magic. The country, the whole world, is terrified and in turmoil.

In short…it is the hour of Albion’s greatest need.

Arthur returns. Merlin is waiting on the shore. He brings Arthur home to his flat, gives him clothes without bloodstains, and makes him dinner. Arthur settles on Merlin’s sofa like he belongs there, and they drink in each other’s faces.

Merlin is loathe to leave, but he has to. Arthur asks where he is going, and he tells Arthur he has a job, adds jokingly that it no longer involves serving a clotpole, thank the gods. 

It is, of course, a lie; but Arthur believes him.

Their relationship soon returns to what it was, and more. They are happy and in love.

Arthur is at first very disoriented, very confused by modern life. He learns quickly, though, and one day when Merlin is out, Arthur figures out how to turn on the television.

Nothing else is talked about, these days, than the killings.

It becomes Arthur’s goal to stop this killer. He doesn’t tell Merlin. He doesn’t know why. Maybe it’s a sort of revenge for all the secrets Merlin once kept from him. Maybe he is waiting until after he puts a stop to the murders, so he can show Merlin he did something good, that he isn’t completely useless like Merlin seems to think he is now. (No, Arthur, don’t go in that door, that’s where I keep the modern technology, you won’t like it.) Maybe he suspects, somewhere deep down.

Neither of them know what the other is until Arthur’s sword is embedded in Merlin’s chest.

Not even immortality can save you from a dragon-forged blade, and Merlin no longer has anyone who would carry him to the Lake of Avalon.


End file.
